MEDAL RECIPIENT REVISES CHAPTER

Iraq vet is first woman to join San Diego’s Military Order of the Purple Heart

Leaders of both San Diego County chapters said they were surprised it took so long to get their first female member, but they expect many more in coming decades.

“Even male recipients of the Purple Heart, when they get out of service often they want to keep at arm’s length away from that life. It’s only later they realize that there is something to be gained from that comradeship,” Miller said.

The San Diego County chapters have had more success in recent years recruiting younger combat veterans. But “there aren’t a very big percentage of the Iraq or Afghanistan war veterans who join. They are like we were when we came back from Vietnam. It took us awhile,” said Rutledge.

“The main reason most Vietnam veterans do the things we do for the order is because of the way we were treated when we came back from the war,” he said. “We swore we would never allow another person to go through that.”

Three tours in Iraq

Rodriguez grew up in San Bernardino and worked for the Sheriff’s Department like her father before joining the Army, becoming the first in her family to serve in the military.

She was stationed in Korea before the Iraq War. She volunteered for the 2003 invasion and drove an unarmored truck to Baghdad.

Rodriguez returned to Iraq as a vehicle commander running fuel convoys from Al Taqaddam across the war zone. One night in September 2005, her truck was blasted by a roadside bomb. She was blown from the cab and landed on her head, suffering a mild concussion. The driver was killed.

Rodriguez pushed through the last month of her tour despite intense headaches and mood swings, survivor’s guilt and night terrors. She got a combat action badge but not much treatment, she said. Partly because the military wasn’t as aware of blast injuries. Partly because she hid her symptoms.

“I was afraid of being non-deployable. Because I was a soldier I didn’t want to be taken out of my job,” she said.

Just weeks into her third tour, in Mosul, another bomb exploded. A chunk of shrapnel crashed through the windshield and melted into the front seat between herself and the driver. The private at the wheel dislocated his shoulder in the explosion. Rodriguez pulled him out the passenger door of the smoking vehicle.

As they took cover behind a berm, insurgents raced toward them, shooting out of their van. “Survival,” was the only thought in her head. “That was it. Protect me and the soldier that was with me.”

Rodriguez kept firing her M-16 rifle until she passed out.

She came to in the “cash,” the Combat Support Hospital. “I was just scared that maybe I had lost somebody again. I actually thought it was a dream,” she said.

Her driver survived and continued his tour. Rodriguez was evacuated for medical treatment. Months later, she got her Purple Heart pinned on.

Everyday challenges

Back in Colorado Springs, some soldiers doubted she had been wounded in combat.